


Stardust In Her Hair

by loveandwar007



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Childhood, Family, Gen, for now enjoy this idea, heavily implied future starco, i may expand this into a longer work i haven't decided yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 01:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13514175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveandwar007/pseuds/loveandwar007
Summary: Angie tries to preserve the belief in fairy tales in her young son through bedtime stories, but little Marco has questions born out of fear of his very real world. A tiny glimpse into the early childhood of the Safe Kid, and how a small comforting thought kept him going.





	Stardust In Her Hair

“ _‘Holding her close in his arms, the Prince gently kissed her, willing the breath of life to flow through her cold lifeless form.’"_  Looking over the top of the open hardcover book in her lap, Angie could see Marco dozing off against his pillows, his mouth hanging open with a glob of drool in the corner of his mouth. Smiling, she closed the book and set it aside, reaching up to tuck the covers in around her little boy. Moving aside the white Tang Soo Do belt he still wanted tied around his head, she kissed his forehead and got up from the end of the bed -- only to be stopped by a small voice.

“Mama? What happened to her?”

“Who?” Angie asked her son, now wide awake and sitting upright.

“The Princess. Did he save her?”

“Oh honey, you’ve seen the movies,” his mother replied almost dismissively, sitting back down beside where she left the storybook. “Of course he saves her, he always does.”

“Read it,” Marco demanded, tapping the end of his finger on the cover.

“Why don’t you read it to me?” Angie smirked, flipping open to the story’s final page and holding it open for him to see. “Miss Tompkins says you read better than all the other kids in your class.”

“Okay,” Marco shrugged, peering closely at the elegant print. Beneath the words was a beautiful watercolor drawing of a handsome blond prince wearing a knight’s armor and a golden crown, holding a lovely princess with long raven hair wearing a flowing white and gold gown in his arms. “ _‘For a moment, she did not move, and the Prince was sure he had lost her forever. But then, a mir--mirac--uh, mira--’_ ”

“‘Miracle’,” Angie corrected patiently.

“ _‘A miracle happened. The Princess breathed, her dark eyes opening to find his wide and full of joy. He swept her up onto his horse and carried her back to his castle, where the two were wed the next day. The sorcerer was banished to the Dark Forest, never to be seen again. And they all lived happily ever after. The End.’_ ”

“Wasn’t that nice?” his mother trilled, taking the book from him to place it back on the shelf. “I’ll get you a few more of these for your birthday, maybe with more action and sword fights in them--”

“Mama, do the princes ever get saved?” Marco asked quietly, flopping back onto his pillows as fatigue overtook him once more. “If the princes are too busy saving all the princesses, then who’s gonna save them?”

Angie paused, drumming her fingers on top of the comforter as she thought this one over. Her boy was very perceptive, at an almost alarming level. She recalled the principal of Echo Creek Preschool calling her and Rafael into her office a few months ago to tell them Marco’s intelligence quotient was higher than most four-year-olds in the state of California. He was a practical thinker at such a young age, but he was still very sensitive and had a caring heart. Angie couldn’t have asked for a sweeter more wonderful son, but he was often too inquisitive for his own good. Even when she read him fairy tales to keep his childhood wonderment alive, he still called her to task on the absurdity of some of them.

“Well...sometimes the princesses have to save the princes. Remember _Beauty and the Beast?_ She was the one that saved _him_ from the curse. And _Rapunzel,_ where she cured him of his blindness? There’s lots of other stories where the prince needs his princess to rescue him.”

“If Daddy was in trouble, would you save him?”

“Of course I would, in a heartbeat.” She slid under the covers beside him, pressing her back to the headboard and opening her arms, allowing Marco to curl up against her. “When Daddy and I got married, we became a team for the rest of our lives. Partners in crime. That means no matter what happens, we’re always there for each other.” Angie grinned, her green eyes shining as she lightly tapped the end of Marco’s nose. “And when we had you, we also made a promise to always love you and keep you safe.”

“Like when I got kicked in the head at karate last week?”

“That was an accident,” Angie stiffened, smothering her nervousness with a tight chuckle. “Accidents will happen. But I promise, I’ll never let anything _horrible_ happen to you.”

“Like what the Prince said to the Princess...” Marco trailed off, biting on his lower lip as if in deep contemplation. He had read lots of stories and seen many movies in his short life, and most of them had someone telling a loved one they would protect them, only for something bad to happen to them anyway. He shivered -- he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him _ever._ He didn’t want to be trapped in a burning building, or dangling from the edge of a cliff, or even be in a car accident. Not if there wasn’t going to be someone there to save him.

_And what if Mama and Daddy aren’t there? Just like when…?_

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Angie asked soothingly, kissing the top of his head when she saw tears spring to Marco’s eyes. He clutched her around the middle, shaking his head as he buried his face in her bosom. “Did something happen at school? Or karate?”

He had wanted to keep it to himself, but hearing his mother’s voice, feeling her arms snugly wrapped around him, made Marco suddenly spill everything -- the entire episode from earlier that week.

“They locked me in the playground bathroom,” he said in a quiet hitched breath. “Lars and his other two friends. I banged on the door for a long time, but no one found me. The bell rang and everybody went inside.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Angie whispered, a horrified look crossing her face. She had no idea Marco was being bullied, not even a mention about it at the last parent-teacher conference. And now, not only did she feel insanely guilty, but her heart was just broken. “Marco, I am so _so_ sorry. You must’ve been so scared.”

“I was.” He wiped his face on his mother’s shirt while she rocked him back and forth, hearing in her voice that she might start crying as well.

“How did you get out?” She could have sworn Marco’s cheeks grew a bit redder before he answered.

“Jackie Lynn found me.” He swallowed hard, “I don’t like crying in front of the other kids. But she saw me when she opened the door. She didn’t laugh or anything. She just took me back to the classroom.”

“That was very sweet of her.” A smile tugged at her lips when Marco’s blush didn’t fade, thumbing away a few stray tears. “Is that why you wanted to know if the prince ever needs saving?”

He nodded, hiding his face in her chest again. “But I wanna fight back. That’s why I take karate.”

“Karate isn’t just about fighting back, sweetie,” Angie said, combing her fingers through his rich mop of dark hair. “You already have so much strength inside of you. And you have a good heart. Just because some people don’t see it now doesn’t mean they never will.” She planted little kisses in his hair as Marco’s sobs slowed back into even breathing. “You are gonna do amazing things someday, Marco, I promise. And I love you, whether you’re feeling strong or weak.”

“I love you too, Mama.” He lay quietly against her for a few minutes, trying to fall asleep. But he didn’t want to see the monsters in his sleep again either. So he just shut his eyes and focused on his mother’s scent and embrace, playing the lullaby in his head that his Abuelita Linda sang to him the last time she visited.

He was disturbed when one of his mother’s arms slid away, and Marco opened his eyes to see her fumbling through his bookshelf for another storybook. Pulling out one with a silver and blue cover entitled _Tales of the Stars,_ she placed it between them in her lap and opened up to the first entry:

“ _‘Far, far away in a magical land, lived a princess with hearts in her eyes and stardust in her hair. She was the most beautiful in the land, but also the most courageous. She traded her needlepoint for a sword, her dresses for armor, and for many years longed to work hard to earn her crown.’”_

She felt Marco shift beside her, sitting up to look at the page properly. His eyes were wide, full of that wonderment she never wanted him to lose, as he examined the picture. This princess was slender and graceful, with long golden hair flowing in the breeze and a sword on the hip of her silver dress, yet she wore an expression that told everyone she meant business. She had to be the most amazing princess he had seen in any of the stories.

The tale went on to tell about the prince that she loved, but she spent far more time saving _him_ than he did her. And at the end, _she_ was the one who asked him to marry her. The excitement of the story wore Marco out, however, and Angie closed the book just before the couple shared their first kiss.

“Can we finish tomorrow?” Marco yawned. “I like that one.”

“Sure we can,” Angie nodded, tucking him in once more -- and this time he let her remove the white belt from around his head. “Goodnight, honey.” She made to turn and head out the door, but a firm hand reached out and grabbed hers.

“I want you here,” Marco confessed, wiping his fist over his damp eyes. “Please?”

Angie shook her head, leaning down to kiss him and hold him close one more time. “I can’t always be here. And neither can Daddy. You can face the monsters yourself, Marco, I _know_ you can. And someday, when you feel you can’t, there will be a princess with hearts in her eyes and stardust in her hair that’ll save you. Okay?”

“Okay.” Marco snuggled himself into the pillows and shut his eyes, thankfully not getting up again when Angie turned off his lamp and closed the door.

“How long were you listening?” she grinned when a pair of strong arms reached out of the darkness in the hallway and wrapped themselves around her from behind.

“Long enough, _querida,”_ Rafael rumbled, his broad chest vibrating against the back of her head as he kissed her neck. “Should we do something about the bullies?”

“Let’s wait and see if there’s another incident first,” she said, angling her head upward to peck his lips. “I want him to be brave. He has so much to offer, Rafael, and I _want_ him to have a childhood before he needs to worry about all that stuff. He’s growing up way too fast.” She groaned, “I’m the worst mother ever! I told our son a princess with hearts in her eyes and stardust in her hair will give him his happily ever after -- I was just trying to comfort him!”

Rafael laughed, swinging her back and forth in his arms. “It does not hurt to dream. I want him to believe in fairy tales for as long as he can, before the world tells him not to. If he believes he can fight the monsters in the stories, then he will be able to take on anything, Angie.”

“I hope you’re right…” She smiled, “He really liked that new book I got.”

“I have never heard of that story,” Rafael remarked, his brow furrowing. “Where did you find that one?”

“At that antique bookstore downtown. But it was the weirdest thing: I was searching through a pile of used books when I knocked over a stack behind me. But after I picked up my mess and looked back at the pile, there was this blue and silver book on top that I _swear_ I didn’t see there before.” Now it was her turn to knit her eyebrows together, shaking her head back and forth in disbelief. “How it got there, I’ll never know…”

 

* * *

 

Queen Moon slid _Tales of the Stars_ back into the pink bookshelf in the princess’ nursery, illuminated by the light of Mewni’s four moons high in the sky. She knew there had been two copies in the castle library at one point, but when she went there this morning to find only one, she decided to put it in the nursery for safekeeping. There were so few good stories about princesses these days.

Smiling down at her sleeping daughter, Moon gently tugged the pigtails out of her golden blonde hair, trying not to wake her further when her face twitched. But the toddler just clutched the dolls of her mother and father closer to her chest, letting out a little sigh as she settled back down.

She had refused to go to sleep until she heard the whole story: How the princess rescued the prince from certain death, realizing in almost losing him that she loved him deeply, then sharing true love’s kiss when he agreed to marry her, going on to fight many battles together for the rest of their lives. The little girl had declared it her favorite of them all, and Moon smiled. It had been her favorite as a child as well.

“Goodnight, my Star,” she hushed tenderly, kissing the sweet little peaceful face adorned with rose heart emblems. “May you one day find that special person who will fight your battles _with_ you.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are great, but comments are better :)


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